Comic Flatting Tutorial Part 1

Ok, this is part 1 of my flatting Tutorial. My name is Lisa and I have been working flatting comics for a little over a year now. I enjoy it very much and a couple people have asked me how I do it. So here is a tutorial/walkthrough were I show you how it works. You can check out my website at www.just-flats.net

The Young Flame - The comic pages featured in this video are from a comic called The Young Flame. You can check out the official myspace for this comic at: http://www.myspace.com/millicomics

Best Tutorial for learning how to Flat:
As I mentioned in the video this is the best tutorial that I have found for learning the process of flatting. It is actually the tutorial that I learned from:
http://www.mark-sweeney.com/Site-Pages/Tutorials/PDF-Tutorials.html
It is the first tutorial on that page.

Thanks for looking and if you have any questions for me, ask away!

Category:

Howto & Style

Tags:

• comic
• flatting
• comics
• art
• flats
• photoshop
• coloring

[diamondgoatmedia]

Hi Safari! First, thanks alot for this tutorial, will will save me LOTS of time. I have a stupid question for you. Once you're done with the image and you need to save it as a tiff, how do you get the line work to appear within the image, Ive tried a couple different ways and I'm still only getting the base colors. Thank you in advance!

[safarisunset83]

@diamondgoatmedia I actually have a new channel for my tutorials now and have one covering this very thing. :) The username is hueville, it's the 2nd tutorial down on the main channel page. Hope that helps!

[Klif]

What I don't understand is why you would work in RGB. If the comic is going to see print, why not use CMYK right off the bat? It just seems like extra work to do it in RGB, then convert to CMYK and then have to check out all your colours to make sure that they are within the gamut of CMYK.

[safarisunset83]

@Klif It's just the way I learned. I color with the cmyk preview on so that the visible colors are actually what will show when you convert to cmyk. Plus there are many filters and layer effects that will not work in cmyk. So it's just what works for me. Not everyone works this way, and you can easily set up your files in cmyk from the start if that's what you like doing.

[LepperBrutalDrummer]

This video helps me so much! Oh My God! Thank you veeeeeeery f***** much!!!! THANKS A LOT!! Really! This was very important to me because I haven't got a clue on how to manage this software for doing exactly what you are doing.

I draw manga and this is very helpful.

I have a little question: What is the best way to convert the image that I scan (already inked) to a black and white image, without any grayscale pixel... I mean, only black and white. Is that possible?

Thanks again!!!

[safarisunset83]

Awesome! Glad I managed to help you out a bit.

As far as converting your image goes. I'd say make sure you scan your files in at a high resolution... say 600dpi or so. Then in phtoshop you can convert the file to bitmap format. You do that by going to Image->Mode and then chose your mode. To get up to bitmap if your starting from an RGB format just convert it once to grayscale. Then convert it again to bitmap. Hope that helps!

[katimusprimeable]

Hello! Looks like the link to the tutorial you learned from doesn't point to anything but a front page with nothing else in sight. I've been spreading yours around, though, because they are super-amazing and I learned a lot from them!

[diamondgoatmedia]

Thank you VERY much! I would never of thought to do that! That's the beauty of Photoshop for you! :)

[architectus777]

@safarisunset83 Most pros do it this way for many reasons, so I'd stick with working in RGB.

[LepperBrutalDrummer]

Thanks a lot again!!!

There's so much to learn!!!

Yeah!!